A place for staff of Califa member libraries to keep up with our latest news and offerings.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

OUP trials and special pricing this fall

Oxford University Press is offering special pricing on several of their databases for Califa members through the end of November. Trials are available to all members on our Trials page online (califa.org --> members --> internal documents) of the following databases (full descriptions are below):

Please let us know whether you would like a quote, or need your califa website login information.

NEW! Oxford Dictionaries Online 30% off first-year subscriptionDo you have patrons looking for guidance on job applications, resumes, and cover letters? Oxford Language Dictionary's Practical Writing section can help. Are there puzzle enthusiasts among your patrons? Fans of crosswords and similar word games should check out the Puzzles section to help solve some of those trickier clues.

Do we need Oxford Dictionaries Online? 70% of people need and use English language resources (for students, the figure is 90%)*70% of users surveyed found free online dictionaries difficult to use, slow, or out of date*** Source: Book Marketing Limited research for Oxford University Press 2007 ** Source: Oxford University Press consumer research July 2009Although there are many free dictionary sites, they are not meeting user needs.

Oxford Dictionaries Online is sure to become the go-to resource for definition-seekers, professionals, writers, students, teachers, non-native speakers, puzzle enthusiasts, and anyone wanting to "look it up." Includes audio pronunciation and practical writing advice to make the right impression in everyday situations, including apply for a job and email guidelines.

NEW! Berg Fashion Library 20% off first-year subscriptionFor all of those budding Project Runway contestants among your teen patrons, and for your community theatre folks or doll-making enthusiasts, here is the new go-to resource!

Anchored by the 10-volume Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion (July 2010), the Berg Fashion Library incorporates a full range of resources essential for anyone working on dress or fashion. Contains 4,000+ images (including 1,600 from the Victoria and Albert Museum's internationally renowned fashion collection). Beginning in 2011, over 2,000 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute collection will be uploaded.

Social Explorer 20% off first-year subscription Understanding your community is the key to success. Make sure that you and your patrons have that key by offering Social Explorer.

Social Explorer is an online research tool designed to provide quick and easy access to historical census data and demographic information. It creates fast, intuitive, and appealing maps and reports to help users visually analyze and understand demography and social change throughout history, 1790 – present."...they've done a fantastically thorough job. You can zoom all the way from the national level to ... the street you live on, and see all sorts of different data, from income to industry to gender to ethnicity to means of commuting to family structure. Want a map showing percent of foreign-born nationals who immigrated in the last five years? It's there. Want a map showing percentage of self-employed males? It's there. Percentage of housing where rent is between $600 - $800 per month, or where heat is provided by solar power? It’s there." The Changing World - Jeremy Faludi, 2005Oxford Biblical Studies Online 30% off first year subscriptionAre your patrons interested in biblical studies, commentary, or almost anything in the 200's? And…would they enjoy the flexibility of comparing various Bible verse translations and commentaries side-by-side? Oxford Biblical Studies Online might be the resource just for them!

"HOW GOOD IS IT? I have truly just scratched the surface of this mammoth work of scholarship . . . Oxford breaks the one-to-ten rating scale once again: this file is an astonishing 11. Most highly recommended for academic, public, school, and special libraries serving serious Bible researchers." —Cheryl LaGuardia Library Journal, May 1, 2009

Oxford African American Studies Center 30% off first-year subscriptionBe prepared to meet all of your student patron's needs for Black History Month! Along with authoritative reference content, the rich image gallery and multi-media video clips bring history to life - watch Hank Aaron break the major league home run record or Maya Angelou recite “And Still I Rise”. Take a look at Oxford's African American Studies Center and explore the riches available on an unlimited access basis.

“The folks at Oxford have once again thought of everything…There’s not enough space to extol OAASC’s virtues sufficiently…Because it is so extraordinary, the resource makes it necessary this once to raise the usual rating scale of 1 to 10 to an unprecedented 11! The Bottom Line: A remarkable achievement in accessible scholarship, Oxford African American Studies Center is strongly recommended for all libraries.” — Cheryl LaGuardia, Library Journal